The Israeli army said on Monday it arrested a "terrorist" cell run by the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during an operation in southern Syria.
The army said it carried out a targeted overnight operation in the Syrian town of Kudna in Quneitra province and "arrested operatives that were operated by Al Quds Force" and "posed a threat in the area".
It said troops “remain deployed in the area, continuing to operate and prevent the entrenchment of any terrorist entity in Syria, with the aim of protecting the residents of the State of Israel".
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported that Israeli forces raided the village of Al Dawaya in Quneitra, searched a number of houses and arrested two brothers.
Syrian media said Israeli forces arrested six people including a child in the countryside of Quneitra.
since the fall of Bashar Al Assad's regime in December, Israeli troops have been stationed in Syria where they have established a buffer zone near the border. Syrian authorities have condemned Israel for pushing deeper into the country.
The Israeli military last week said it had captured another “terrorist cell operated by Iran” in a raid in southern Syria, with Syrian state media reporting three people had been arrested.
Israel has also carried out strikes in Syria aimed at denying the Islamist-led interim administration military assets.
On June 12, Syria said the Israeli military killed one civilian and detained seven people in an overnight incursion, with the Israeli army saying it had seized members of Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israel has said it is "interested" in establishing ties with Syria and neighbouring Lebanon, but insisted the strategic Golan Heights – which Israel seized from Syria in 1967 and later annexed in a move not recognised by the UN – would "remain part of Israel" under any peace accord.
